This is my personal blog. I was Branch Secretary of Lambeth UNISON from 1992 to 2017 and a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of UNISON, the public service union (www.unison.org.uk) from 2003 to 2017.
I am Chair of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party and of the Sussex Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
Neither the Labour Party nor UNISON is responsible for the contents of this personal blog. (Nor is my employer!)

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

UNISON Northern Region rebuts criticism

Here is an extract from the summary of discussion at UNISON's Northern Regional Committee which has been passed to me by regular readers Sid and Doris Regional Leadership;

"Blogs

Discussion held around the way in which blogs were being used by some NEC members outside the Region to make unacceptable and factually incorrect comments about the Northern Region, and elected activists. It was felt this was bullying and harassment and there needs to be a protocol to protect individuals from such behaviour. Paul Thompson and Josie Bird agreed to take up at the NEC."

For those who want to share experiences of how UNISON deals with complaints about comments on blogs I am happy to share from my own experience.

Should this blog be one of those NEC members' blogs to which comrades in the North were referring then I should point out that the comment box is open and that I would always publish the comments (and indeed a total right of reply) from any UNISON member who feels that they have been unjustly criticised.

In unrelated news I am considering requests from comrades to post reports of how and by whom UNISON United Left was set up and why (on earth) I agreed to stand in the last General Secretary election.

3 comments:

Good that you will now be explaining why you stood for the GS position a few years ago. Will wait and see what you write with interest but will be nice in my response (if factually incorrect) as I have been told off (last night) by a mutual friend of ours. I was also instructed to be publicly nice to you?! I thought I always was? The comments (not from you) about the realationship between myself and the UL misinterprets history. It was the UL that asked me back in 2002/3 to stand under their ticket and not the other way around. I was Finance Convenor and won an election against R Styles in 1999 as an independent and served for 5 years. So someone has got their history wrong! In fact I lost the 2005 election because I went under the UL ticket?? I don't see how the SWP (splendid group of people as they may be) and Labourites can be in bed together?? Never understood that!!

things can sometimes get a bit vague but I seem to remember us setting up UUL sometime around 1999 to unify the CFDU and the SWP? The purpose was very much to do what it said on the tin, to unite the left in UNISON. At times we have been more successful,others less so. That being said I have enjoyed and believe I have contributed and gained from working with comrades from different traditions. As to why you stood for GS, I think that is your story to tell Jon